In a hole in the ground there lived...

The Hau faded into the starlight as Takanuva moved away, its eyes glittering with a knowing look as it flickered and vanished.

The wind began to moan again as Takanuva jogged off down the ruined track of the road. His focus was now turned to a new duty—a new goal. He was running out of time. He felt the urgency of his plight keenly now. He would have to finish this task quickly if he was to continue.

Before him, along the horizon, the silver light rose up into the towers and spires of a vast city. A City of Silver. The stars paled in comparison as he ran briskly down the winding track. Here and there to the side of the road a stone pillar loomed among the trees, and sometimes he glimpsed the remains of ruins deeper in the forest, broken and buried beneath ancient dust and the winding of dead roots.

The forest ended abruptly before the walls of the Silver City. Straight from the earth it rose, smooth and glass-like. Takanuva approached and ran a hand along the surface. It was almost frictionless. Impossible to climb, for sure. The metal or crystal of which the wall was made glowed with an inner light, filling the sky above him with its silver radiance.

He turned back to the road. Now he saw that it wound its way parallel to the wall, vanishing in the dusk to his right. He followed it, moving more slowly now, staff in hand, ready for anything he might meet.

After a while, he found that the roadway was paved. Closely-fitted stones made the path straight and even. The stones were well-carved, bathed in the same silver light as the city. No Po-Matoran could do better...

For a moment, faced with memories rising in his mind, Takanuva felt the strangeness of his situation. Lost in a dead forest in some Mata Nui-forsaken land, searching along a glowing road beside a glowing city. He certainly never expected to be doing this.

A sound broke his reverie—the noise of shouts. He realized that he had slowed to a walk, but now he quickened his pace. There was a commotion ahead. Some kind of uproar. He squinted through the dimness, around the curve of the wall. This must be the danger the Hau had spoken of.

A Kanohi Hau was hanging in the night air before him, huge and spectral. A Hau made of light.The stars seemed to glimmer through its face, through its two huge eyes. They were deep eyes, ancient and tranquil. The pattern of the stars found an order in those eyes.

“Wh-who are you?” Takanuva asked, finally finding his voice. His eyes were wide, almost disbelieving the image that hung before him. The shock of seeing such a familiar likeness in such a foreign place seemed to clash with the relief he felt at finding something living in this dead forest.

“I am...of the Great Beings,” the Hau said, staring down at him impassively. Its eyes seemed to pierce him through, gazing into his heart and mind.

“Can you...can you tell me where I am?” Takanuva replied. He felt his heartbeat quicken at the mention of the Great Beings. Perhaps he wasn’t as far from home as he had thought.

“You are lost.” it replied, and Takanuva thought he caught a glimmer of humor in the mask’s face.

“Yes, I know,” he said, frowning a little, “I mean, can you help me find my way?”

“I can.” Now the image of the mask turned its eyes downward. Takanuva’s gaze followed, and, there in front of him, he saw the shape of the gnomon, still quivering slightly, pointing straight toward the floating Hau. He picked it up gingerly, finding that it no longer burned him.

“Why did this lead me to you?” Takanuva asked, turning the small rod in his fingers.

“It is also of the Great Beings.”

“Oh? But it’s just a gnomon.”

“Appearance should not be judged so hastily,” the mask said with a tinge of reproach. “You will only deceive yourself that way.”

An hour went by. The gravel of the forest floor crunched under his armored feet. The stars shone down, unblinking.

Takanuva was beginning to feel restless. Striding on through the endless darkness, there was no destination, no real direction. He had no goal, other than getting out of the forest, and now he felt as if he were going in circles.

The trees seemed to gather more thickly around him as he went on, the branches lowering like twisted arms. It was an unsettling place, this forest. No sound disturbed the silence, other than the crunch of gravel and the mourning of the wind. There were no rahi here. Nothing at all.

It was a place that felt...left behind. Abandoned. Empty. A house with no inhabitants...

He shivered. Would the night never end? Perhaps here night was eternal.

”Ironic,” he thought. "They said I was supposed to drive out the night, bring a ‘new day’. Now I can’t even manage a flicker...”

He squinted, putting a hand out in front of him to push away the low-hanging twigs.

A flash, and stars flickered across his vision, but not just the stars of shock or pain.

Real stars.

An unfathomable darkness opened beneath him, a gaping absence. The endless depth of the Void yawned, tearing at his being as he hurtled onward. Onward through the emptiness, through the black, reeling darkness...

Onward!

A thud, and the heavy weight of gravity seized his limbs as he collapsed to solid earth.

It was over.

Takanuva lay still, his lungs heaving, perspiration and fear clouding his vision like a fog. His jaw was clenched tight, muscles seizing as he began to shudder. The feeling of abject terror that enveloped him was like nothing he had ever encountered, and it was slow to abate.

But it did abate, gradually releasing its hold upon him. He exhaled, letting his body go limp, exhausted from the journey. His mind was still dazed, and his eyes roved around him, trying to focus on his surroundings. Where was he? . . . Read on

The voice echoed in the dry air of the chamber. Helryx’s voice was terse, thick with urgency. She stepped forward and pressed something into his hand. It was the gnomon—a piece of the ancient sundial he had unlocked. What did it mean? He could not say.

Takanuva glanced to his left. The Silent Toa still stood motionless, his eyes grim. Krakua was a strange Toa, Takanuva thought; but, of the three beings which surrounded him in this dim chamber, he trusted him the most.

Krakua nodded, his voice echoing in Takanuva’s mind: “Go.”

The other being was there too: Brutaka, the traitor, the one whom they said had despaired, once.

“Once condemned, but now redeemed,” Helryx had said. The scarred mask upon Brutaka’s face flickered with a dangerous light. The Olmak was perilous. A thing that could open doors…gateways.

Windows through the Void.

There was nothing for it now. No other task, no other cause.

No other duty.

“Go!”

Takanuva faced forward now, steeling his nerves, eyes wide against the terrible light of what loomed before him.

Okay, after a brief delay caused by the awesomeness of LEGO LotR, here is an official blog entry for this epic. This story is meant to mirror the Bioniclestory.com serials of the past, taking especial inspiration from "Takanuva's Blog," in which the various travels of Takanuva on his way to Karda Nui were described.

Each entry will be posted in the main topic, but I will also add a corresponding update to this blog, featuring a portion of the entry (not the whole thing, of course) and a link to the new post. Why is this? Visibility, mainly. And also so that a record of the serial is preserved as a category in this blog. At the time of writing this, I have enough material for every-other-week updates for the next couple of months, meaning that this'll last a while.

As always, your comments and criticism are very welcome, but, above all, your readership is most appreciated. Stay tuned.

Chapter I

=ll=

"Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a blog-hole, and that means comfort."